So many buttons

The first one is the original version which has been published in Askew Poetry Journal: Issue 10, Spring 2011

So many buttons

In Madrid, I was catching street signs one by one,
dragging them behind me in the long loose net of the day;

El Pintor Juan Gris, Alcala, Gran Via, Lope de Vega, San Bernardo.

All the names weighed less and less with every ‘avenida’ I burned across.

Todos son flush, perfectly in place upon my memory

like so many buttons on a winter coat;

so many plazas and stones, so many footsteps make a road.

I drank café con leche everyday and my words
turned this warm stain of moreno, bubbling in a froth of sweetness.

In Madrid, New York, Austin, Honolulu,

my desires have been dragging always just behind me, too close for me to see.

-->a revised version was written before the acceptance by Askew and is my current version of it.

So many buttons

In Madrid,
I was catching street signs one by one,
dragging them behind me in the
long loose net of the day:

El pintor Juan Gris, Alcala,
San Bernardo, Lope de Vega, Gran Via,
sign after sign, they burned me alive, 
I drank in every avenida 
like I do rioja.

These memories,
they are imperfectly in their place,
hoisted high above and weightless, 
like so many buttons on a winter coat,                                                
so many plazas and stones, 
so many footsteps make a road.  
   
I drank cafe
con leche everyday
and my words transformed
into a warm stain of moreno,
a sweet bubbling froth
of lispy castillano.

In New York,
my desires had been dragging
always just behind me, 
too close for me to see.